ten members of our Coalition, and two college students, met with Secretary of Education John King for an ESSA Roundtable. We addressed key pieces of the law that fall in our priorities as a Coalition, and members took turns highlighting strengths in ESSA and the Department of Education’s Draft Regulations, as well as requesting clarity or strengthening of rules that directly impact equity and access for students of color.
In July, ten members of our Coalition Steering Committee and two college students met with Secretary of Education John King for an ESSA Roundtable. We addressed key pieces of the law that fall in our priorities as a Coalition, and members took turns highlighting strengths in ESSA and the Department of Education’s Draft Regulations, as well as requesting clarity or strengthening of rules that directly impact equity and access for students of color.
We highlighted subgroup accountability and reporting, test participation rates, low-performing schools and subgroups, and EL accountability, proficiency, and reporting. We also had a lengthy discussion about increasing the number of diverse teachers, and addressing teacher equity across the state. Secretary King commended our preparation and passion, and mastery of the law and its implications for the students and families that we represent. He encouraged us to make our positions public whenever possible, and to weigh in on the Public Comment page of the Draft Regulations, and reach out to Senator Alexander to share with him our priorities and recommendations.
Stay tuned for more information on that! We were extremely honored to host the Secretary, and recognize that the opportunity would not have presented itself had we not reached out to him as a broad statewide Coalition of diverse stakeholders.
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